The Healthcare Commission has slammed Harrow Primary Care Trust's urgent and emergency care, rating it as one of the worst performing in the UK.

The Healthcare Commission has slammed Harrow Primary Care Trust's urgent and emergency care, rating it as one of the worst performing in the UK.

Only three of the 152 PCTs across the whole of the UK fared worse than Harrow in what has been labelled the most comprehensive review of these fields to date.

And despite government targets to speed up urgent treatment, the review, released last week, shows patients in the borough have been suffering unnecessary delays.

It was given the lowest possible score in four areas concerning outof-hour GP services, and was criticised for delays in treatment at urgent care centres and the turnaround of ambulances.

It received an overall rating of 2.55 out of five, ahead of only Bolton, South West Essex and Newham, and was among the 28 PCTs labelled as 'least well performing'.

Sarah Crowther, chief executive of Harrow PCT, accepted the review was a fair reflection of its performance last year but claimed ongoing work since meant it was not as bad as it seemed.

She said: "Most of the data was taken from the 2007/08 financial year and a lot of work we have been doing wouldn't have started to make a real difference until after that period because it isn't something that can be resolved overnight.

"In March we opened a new urgent care centre to deal with minor injuries and ailments and we hope to extend the opening hours of at least 50 per cent of GP practices in the near future.

"Harrow will also welcome a poly-clinic in April, which will have extended opening times available to everyone, and since the collection of data we have reached the government target for quicker treatments and ambulance turnaround."

One area that Mrs Crowther accepted was still of concern was the percentage of out-of-hour telephone calls to GPs that were engaged or abandoned.

She added: "At present, out-of-hour GP services are contracted out to a company called Harmoni, which takes all the calls.

"Our feedback shows people are satisfied with the service on the whole but that there are problems with ringing through.

"If this continues to be a cause for concern. It is something we will look at again.

"Overall however, we accept that while the results of the review are fair, we of course welcome feedback, and we were already aware of the problems and were combating them long before the review was released."